A retired Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School teacher was found not guilty Friday on indecent assault and battery charges after a two-day jury trial in Edgartown district court.
Wendell (Leo) Frame faced two counts of indecent assault and battery on a person older than 14.
Mr. Frame, a business teacher who retired from teaching in 2013, was arrested in August 2013 after a former student told police that Mr. Frame had called her to his home and touched her inappropriately.
The former student, who was 18 at the time, was in the tense courtroom as the jury delivered the verdicts Friday, and several of Mr. Frame’s supporters sat on the opposite side of the courtroom. She sobbed quietly as the verdicts were read.
Minutes after the six-person jury returned the not guilty verdicts, Mr. Frame and his wife Janice left the courtroom, happy, he said, that the two-year ordeal is over.
“I’m happy to have my life back, and can’t wait to serve my community,” Mr. Frame said. “There are people out there that I think need Janice and myself in their lives and we’re glad to put ourselves back in their lives, to help young people as much as we can.”
Attorneys John Amabile and Robert Moriarty represented Mr. Frame.
“I think the jury reached the correct verdict,” Mr. Amabile said. “Mr. Frame has been put through a tremendous ordeal. The jury fully exonerated him, which was the right thing to do.”
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